Next Time
by TDA792
Summary: Tali wants to see Shepard to confess to him her feelings. But things go a bit unexpected...   A one-shot. Manshep/Tali romance, eventually.


**A/N: My second fanfic ever written. Tali POV. A one-shot, but can be viewed with my other stories, _En Route To The Omega 4 Relay _and _Engineering_. That is all.**

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><p><strong>Next Time…<strong>

_19:32 [Standard Earth Time]_

_Monday 9__th__ February 2185_

_Normandy SR-2_

_Elevator_

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy waited patiently in the rising elevator. She could not believe what she was about to do. She was headed to Commander Shepard's personal quarters to express how she felt about him. It had taken an immense amount of courage for her to even consider the idea, but she had decided.

The icon above the doors stopped at DECK 3. The doors slid open and in stepped the turian, Garrus Vakarian. He greeted her with a cheery "Hey Tali,", to which she replied, "Good evening, Garrus,". They stood side by side for a second before Garrus burst into conversation.

"Do you remember those long talks we'd have on the elevators in the Citadel? How you'd tell us about life on the flotilla?"

"What about it?" asked Tali dismissively.

"It was an opportunity to share. So, tell me again about your immune system?" Sometimes Garrus could be _really _irritating.

"This conversation is over." Tali said, slightly peeved.

"Come on, loosen up, wouldya? I'm only making conversation." Garrus returned defensively; but then Tali decisively ended the conversation with: "I have a shotgun…" to which Garrus almost jumped, and replied "M-maybe we'll talk later.".

The elevator finally stopped on DECK 2, at the CIC. Garrus stepped out of the elevator and turned, then looked quizzically at Tali, who had not yet gotten off.

"Uh, Tali? Aren't you getting off?" asked Garrus curiously. Tali had previously been shrugging off Garrus' attempt at conversation; now all that irritation transformed into embarrassment. "Um, no. I-I have to go see, uh, see the Commander, about, er… about- something that happened in Engineering… earlier." Tali lied; it was kind of obvious. Garrus gave a knowing wink, and said "Well, see ya." As the elevator doors slid silently shut.

Tali let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. _That was close_, she thought to herself. She leaned back against the wall in an attempt to calm herself down. _Relax, Tali. Nothing's gone wrong… yet._ She told herself. The elevator gave it's familiar chime as the doors opened and she stepped out. She tentatively crossed the hall to the door of Shepard's cabin. She looked at the door's red light, showing it was locked; Tali pressed the button on the door anyway. The door gave a sound that clearly meant 'no entry'.

Tali took several steps back, and leant against the wall, thinking about what to do. Just then, Shepard's cabin doors opened, to reveal Shepard standing there in the doorway.

"Tali? What is it? Is something wrong?" Shepard asked. He sounded concerned.

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong, I just wanted to, um…" Tali realised she didn't know what to say. Should she finish her sentence with 'chat'? would it seem weird? Would it be obvious what she was really here for? But if she didn't, what would she say? She just didn't know.

"Uh, why don't you come in?" offered Shepard as he stood aside.

"I, uh- oh, thank you." Babbled Tali, stepping through the doorway. She walked over and stood near the spot where EDI's blue dome usually appeared.

"So, what did you want to see me about?" asked Shepard politely.

"I, um, I… er, think that… er…" began Tali nervously. She took a deep breath, grateful that she wore a helmet to disguise the fact that she was blushing SO hard. "I-I think that I am in l-" she tried again, but was cut off by the PA system. It was the unmistakeable voice of Kelly Chambers. "Commander Shepard?" she said. "Commander Shepard; Mordin Solus requests to see you in the tech lab." Shepard looked back at Tali, and with an apologetic smile, said "I'm sorry Tali, I have to go. Uh, stay here, I'll be back shortly." With that, he strode out of his cabin and into the elevator. _Dammit, so close_ thought Tali. _No worries, I'll wait for him to come back _she thought as she wandered over to Shepard's fish-tank. Inside was a whole menagerie of different fish. There were fish from all over the galaxy, some Tali recognised, and some she didn't. She spotted an Earth-native Jellyfish swimming almost menacingly around the tank. Tali gave a relaxed sigh, then looked around the room; there was a desk, a double bed, an armour locker, even a computer terminal with access to the extranet. Overcome by curiosity, Tali cautiously approached the terminal. She wondered what sort of things would appear on Shepard's personal computer, and whether it would give her any insight as to, for instance say, what sort of music he liked. Tali sat down in the chair and accidentally touched the strange device next to the keyboard. The originally blank monitor burst into life, with a wallpaper background of the original crew of the first _Normandy_. It almost brought tears to Tali's eyes as she picked out various members of the original crew, even Navigator Pressly, whom she had not harboured much like for. She spotted Shepard standing in the foreground, with one of his human thumbs up. She even spotted herself in amongst the crowd. Tali sat back a little and remembered the day that holo had been taken, some two years prior. It was after they had defeated Saren and Sovereign, just a little while before the destruction of the original _Normandy_.

_Anyway_, she thought, _back to what I'm sat here for_. She clumsily held the thing on human computers called a 'mouse' and clicked on the icon for the extranet. After a millisecond delay, the screen was filled by a common human extranet homepage, all in the main human language English. However, her visor soon took care of that little setback, translating everything she saw into her own language. She clicked again on "Browsing History", with a slight twinge of guilt about what she was doing. She checked over her shoulder. Nothing. She began reading the entries from _Oldest to Newest_.

The first thing it looked like Shepard had searched was "Cerberus". Clearly he had wanted to know more about it; Tali doubted the results had been more than Shepard already knew. The next search was "Commander Shepard"; again, understandable. Who wouldn't want to know what the galaxy thinks of you? After that was various searches, including "Reapers", "The Illusive Man", "Collectors", "Archangel" and Tali was interested to see her own name there, albeit spelt incorrectly. But the most interesting was nearer the bottom, nestled in-between searches like "Family Arguments", and "How long do calibrations take" was one that made Tali's heart jump for joy. Clear as day, were several searches, all essentially the same but rephrased; they mostly read "Male-Human/Female-Quarian Relationships".

Excited, Tali opened a new tab of extranet and began to type; but…

Just then, Tali heard the doors behind her opening again, and the clunk of boots marching across the threshold.

Tali froze as she heard the unmistakeable sound of Commander Shepard returning. She just had time to click the 'minimise' option in the top right of the screen before Shepard could see what she was doing. Still, she was sat at the computer terminal.

"Uh, Tali? What are you doing?" asked Shepard. Tali, even in her shocked state, noted there was no menace in Shepard's voice, no 'whatthehellareyoudoinggetout' tone, just wonderment. Still, Tali didn't want to tell the truth.

"I was, uh, just searching something… on the extranet, yeah. That's what I was doing." She lied; her hands were doing the cute little folding and unfolding thing she did when she was nervous.

"Um, OK. Uh… … You wanted to speak to me?" Shepard said, refocusing.

"Oh, I- uh, oh, never mind, it's not important." Tali lied again. "I, uh, I'll see you, uh, later Shepard." she finished, power-walking towards the door. As she got to the door, she heard Shepard say something.

"Tali?"

"Um, yes?" came a nervous reply.

Slight pause. Then… "Take care of yourself."

Tali blushed. "Oh, right, yes… goodbye," said Tali. With that, she turned and walked out of the cabin.

_Damn,_ thought Tali, _I_ _almost managed it; next time…_

Shepard watched her as the quarian hurried away. He knew she was lying to him; she had been doing that cute little hand thing. Curious, he approached his own computer terminal, and clicked the icon to maximise. There, a query written and ready to go in the search bar was the phrase "Female-Quarian/Male-Human Relationships". Shepard smiled to himself; it was just as he'd hoped. _Next time,_ he thought to himself. _Next time…_


End file.
